4 Brilliant Ways To Make Your Family Fall In Love With Sports

Playing sports can build confidence, teach teamwork and provide us with adequate exercise – but did you know even just cheering for a favorite team on the sidelines can boost our moods and encourage a spirit of camaraderie?

4 Tricks to Get Your Family to Embrace Sports

Discover how the entire family can start enjoying sports together.

Playing sports can build confidence, teach teamwork and provide us with adequate exercise – but did you know even just cheering for a favorite team on the sidelines can boost our moods and encourage a spirit of camaraderie?

Embracing sports as a family can sometimes be a challenge, since different family members often enjoy different aspects of the game. Here are a few ideas to help the entire family enjoy sports together.

1. Host a Watch Party

Kids and adults who don’t particularly enjoy playing sports may still enjoy watching games with family and friends in a party-like atmosphere. If you’re watching a football game, ask everyone to help choose and prepare some football-themed snacks. Then, before the game starts, explain the basic rules so all family members can follow the action.

Even if they don’t love the game, they’re still likely to get caught up in the enthusiasm of cheering for the same team.

2. Go to a Game

You can take the watch party one step further and go to an actual game. Professional sporting events can be expensive, but don’t forget that most communities also have minor league teams or college teams, too.

Does your family prefer fast-paced action? Go to a hockey game. Have a few young soccer stars? Take them out to watch the moves of older players with some serious skills. Seeing the action up close can often inspire greater interest in the game, and it’s fun for the entire family.

3. Take to the Field

Some family members don’t warm up to sports because they never found one they liked. Look for a game that plays to your child’s strengths – maybe hockey if they love to ice skate or basketball if they have great aim – and then practice with a few low-key family matchups. Slip in a few pointers along the way and practice routinely to build their confidence.

4. Find the Right Angle

Sports aren’t just for fun, there’s a lot of math, science and even history involved in our favorite games. No matter what sport you’re looking to learn more about, keep in mind that sometimes it’s a matter of finding the right angle.

Have a math whiz who doesn’t appreciate baseball? Introduce them to statistics and then let them keep track of the numbers on the sidelines of their siblings’ little league game. If your partner or kids don’t enjoy basketball but you love a good game of hoops, look for creative ways to spark their interest. A history buff might enjoy researching the game and some of its most famous players – and with this added background information, they might be a little more interested in playing the game.

Sports can be great for bringing a family together, but if we aren’t careful, they can also divide us (team rivalries, anyone?). By thinking about how individual family members can appreciate the games in their own way, we can help everyone enjoy sports a little more.

And that’s a win for the entire family.

Find interesting fun activities that you can do with your family here at our blog.